Judge Susan G. Braden

Judge Braden was appointed to the United States Court of Federal Claims on July 14, 2003, by President George W. Bush, with unanimous consent of the United States Senate. Her investiture was conducted on October 24, 2003 by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

On February 14, 2007, Judge Braden was elected as a Member of the American Law Institute and will be working on the Institute's Restatement and Unjust Enrichment Projects. On October 22, 2004, she was inducted as a Senior Fellow of the ABA's Administrative Law and Regulatory Section by Justice O'Connor at a ceremony held at the United States Supreme Court. From 2005-2008, Judge Braden was a Member of the Editorial Board of the American Intellectual Property Law Association and in 2008, became a Judicial Master of the Giles S. Rich American Inn of Court.

Prior to joining the bench, Judge Braden litigated complex civil cases in private practice before both trial and appellate courts. In particular, her work in the intellectual property area received favorable notice in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, National Law Journal, Journal of the American Bar Association, and Interfaces on Trial: Intellectual Property and Interoperability In The Global Software Industry. In 1996, Judge Braden was honored by the Computer Law Association for winning multiple decisions in the Eastern District of New York, the Eastern District of Texas, the Second Circuit, and a certified question to the Supreme Court of Texas in Computer Assocs. Int’l, Inc. v. Altai, Inc., a landmark case that changed the application of copyright law to computer software. In 1998, she also won a companion case brought in France before the Cour de Appel de Paris. In the United States Supreme Court, she represented Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation and a coalition of twenty-one universities and major research institutions in the 2001 Festo case, resulting in an unanimous opinion, instructing lower courts to apply the doctrine of equivalents in a flexible manner to avoid disrupting settled expectations in the inventing community. She also represented the American Library Association before the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Texaco Inc. v. American Geophysical Union, a landmark copyright case concerning the scope of the fair use doctrine.

Judge Braden also was lead trial counsel in a number of cutting edge cases. In 1995, she filed a constitutional and state income tax case that challenged the industrial incentive law of the State of Alabama and received favorable mention in the Wall Street Journal, Business Week, and State Income Tax Alert, where it was described as “the case to watch.” In 1991, she was lead counsel in a case noted in the Wall Street Journal where the federal district court awarded her client indemnification of environmental liabilities required to be assumed under an antitrust divestiture. In 1990, she was appointed by the Governor of the State of Alabama as a Special Assistant Attorney General to handle an antitrust divestiture required by the Federal Trade Commission.

In addition, Judge Braden represented a wide variety of client interests before almost every major department and federal agency, testified before the United States Congress on a variety of matters, and was a principal advocate of the Emergency Oil and Steel Loan Guarantee Act of 1999, which established a $1 billion federal loan guarantee program to assist bankrupt and troubled steel mills and small oil companies.

Prior to entering private practice, Judge Braden served as Senior Counsel to the Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission and his predecessor, who was Acting Chairman and a Commissioner (1980-1985). In both positions she was responsible for advising on antitrust and consumer enforcement actions and handling congressional relations. From 1973-1980, Judge Braden was a Senior Trial Attorney in the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice. She joined the Department under its Honor Law Program and initially was assigned to the Cleveland Regional Office, where she assisted in the trial of the first antitrust felony case and served as lead counsel in numerous criminal bid rigging cases and major merger investigations. In 1978, she was assigned to the newly formed Energy Section as lead counsel in a proceeding that conditioned the nuclear licenses of several electric utilities, bringing Texas into the national power grid. From 1978–1980, Judge Braden also represented the Department of Justice at OECD meetings in Paris, London, and Dusseldorf. During her tenure in government, Judge Braden received numerous Superior and Outstanding Performance Merit awards and in 1984, she received the Federal Bar Association’s Distinguished Service Award.

Judge Braden received a B.A. degree (1970) and J.D. degree (1973) from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. She also attended post graduate courses at the Harvard Law School in the summer of 1978. Judge Braden is admitted to the Bars of the United States Supreme Court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, the District of Columbia, and the Supreme Court of Ohio.

Judge Braden is married to Thomas M. Susman, a former partner in the Ropes and Gray, and currently the Director of the American Bar Association’s Government Affairs Office. Their daughter is a graduate of Yale University and a first year student at Columbia University’s School of Business, where she is pursuing a career in international marketing. Judge Braden is an avid gardener and passionate supporter of the Washington Opera and Shakespeare Theatre.